Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Challenging Moscow, Circassians Seek to Overcome Alphabet Divide

Paul
Goble

Staunton, June 17 – The Soviet regime’s
divide and rule approach to the Circassian nation not only left them divided
among four subjects of the Russian Federation but also gave them different
alphabets, an effort to keep the 500,000 Circassians of the North Caucasus from
coming together and joining hands with the more than five million co-ethnics in
the Middle East.

The post-Soviet Russian government
has made it clear that it will block any effort to unite the Circassian
territories into a common homeland, but now Circassians from these four regions
and abroad are challenging Russian ethnic management in another way and
demanding a common alphabet for the dialects that Moscow has promoted as
separate language.

Coming up with a common alphabet is
no easy task, and there is certain to be opposition both from Moscow, fearful
that even this step could empower the Circassians and trigger further
instability in the North Caucasus, and from among the Circassians who are far
from united on which alphabet should be chosen and whether this is an
appropriate next step for the movement.

Since Gorbachev’s time, Circassians
in the North Caucasus have talked about the need for a common alphabet to help
overcome dialect differences, to promote a common Circassian literary language,
and on the basis of that alphabet and language to promote a unified Circassian
nation that would be in a better position to advance its political goals.

But those efforts have fallen victim
not only to internal disagreements over which of several alphabets, Cyrillic,
Latin, or traditional Circassian, should be used, whether the dialects are that
close, and whether changing alphabets would in fact undermine unity by cutting
off Circassian young people from the culture produced in the existing scripts
but also by Moscow and by some republic leaders who are concerned about their
positions.

Now, the issue has been joined
again. On May 19, the International Circassian Association formed a commission
which is supposed to come up with a program for a unified Circassian alphabet
based on Cyrillic as well as for a common literary language to be presented in
September at the organization’s tenths congress (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/264019).

Supporters of this idea are
enthusiastic and see no insurmountable problems: Petr Ivanov, director of the
Kabardino-Balkaria Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, says
that such a move is “the normal reaction of a small people seeking to preserve
itself” from assimilation (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/264071/).

And
other Circassian experts including Khaisha Timizhev of the KBR State University
and Kabardin Congress president Aslan Beshto argue that there are no
insurmountable obstacles to having a common alphabet and that such a move will
not lead to any “levelling” of the varieties of experience among the various Circassian
groups.

“We
are a single people, we have a common psychology and a common artistic
worldview,” Ivanov says, and consequently, it is time to have a common
alphabet.

But commentator Anzor Daur is skeptical,
arguing that Moscow will block the move lest alphabet unity lead to political
unity in the North Caucasus and expanded ties with Circassians abroad.And he suggests Moscow will play up
differences among Circassians about what alphabet they should adopt (onkavkaz.com/news/63-cherkesam-ne-dadut-sozdat-edinyi-alfavit.html).

Those most influenced from abroad
will likely seek a Latin script, but that is a red flag for Moscow which has
refused to allow the Tatars and Bashkirs to shift to the Latin script lest it
expand their identification with Turkey. Those more philologically inclined may
want to go back to the ancient Circassian alphabet but restoring it would be
very difficult.

Consequently, Daur says, if any
change is going to happen, it almost certainly will have to follow the leader
of the International Circassian Association which has made it clear that it
seeks a Cyrillic-based script for Circassians in the North Caucasus.It would be truly ironic if the use of this
Russian script would promote the national aspirations of the Circassians.